Next Brave Browser Will Support Chrome Extensions

Brave is a Chromium-based web browser that comes with built-in ad-blocker, script blocker, tracking protector, and is integrated with HTTPS Everywhere. It also offers anti-fingerprinting and protection against WebRTC leak.

Brave, an open source web browser by Mozilla’s co-founder that claims to block ads and trackers, in addition to facilitating cryptocurrency-based micro-transactions with its native BAT token between content consumers and producers, has announced development plans for its upcoming 1.0 release. The new release will transition to being based on Chromium – making it compatible with all of Google Chrome’s extensions and features.

Brave always relied on Google’s open-source Chromium project for its core functions processing and displaying websites. The new version, though, drops Brave’s custom user interface, built on a project called Muon, and pulls in the Chromium look. That’ll mean Brave users will have to get used to tabs across the top of the browser window, like Chrome, instead of tucked underneath the address bar.

Brave tackles the browsing experience in a completely different way. Users get paid to watch ads and have the option to disable all advertisements altogether. As such, users can achieve greater browsing speeds and simply access the information they are looking for in a convenient manner.

The lightweight browser, which is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac users, is a great alternative to Chrome and Safari. Brave claims to improve users’ online privacy by sharing “less data” with advertisers.

Brave Protects From Cryptojacking

One of the most common attacks in 2018 has been the scourge of unauthorized cryptocurrency miners that run in the background on websites. It’s an attack type that is increasingly referred to as “cryptojacking.” In a cryptojacking attack, a cryptocurrency mining script is injected into a server or a web page to take advantage of a victim system’s CPU power.

The Brave web browser provides an integrated capability called “Shields” that provides ad-blocking and script blocking, plus anti-tracking features that can help limit the risk of cryptocurrency miners.

Adoption of Brave Browser Going Strong

The Washington Post, Vice and the Guardian are all impressive bedfellows that recently integrated Brave browser, but it gets around with more than just media outlets. Popular YouTube channels, such as PewDiePie, Casey Neistat and Philip DeFranco started accepting BAT back in November of 2017, and, this February, the project announced that it has enabled streamers on the popular streaming service Twitch.tv to receive user donations via Brave Payments.

Currently, only the Brave Browser supports BAT, but the team has it in its sights to expand the token to other browsers in the future. If the project can onboard more browsers, BAT may become more attractive to online publishers as its proof of concept morphs into adoption.